ABSTRACT
When his opera, Polly, was banned, Gay was deprived of his apartments in Whitehall. Writing to Pope, he remarked that he had 'no continuing city here. I begin to look upon myself as one already dead, and desire ... that you will ... see these words put upon [my grave-stone]:
Life's a jest, and all things show it, I thought so once, but now I know it,
with what more you may think proper.' Pope's response, it is practically certain, was this mock epitaph on Gay's 'court' death.
